"It was very frustrating" - When Tamim Iqbal spoke about his debut IPL season's experience 

Tamim Iqbal raised quite a few eyebrows in the cricketing world when he decided to retire from international cricket with immediate effect today (July 6). Just last evening, Iqbal was captaining Bangladesh in an ODI match against Afghanistan, and was expected to lead his nation in the Asia Cup and the Cricket World Cup later this year.

However, Tamim Iqbal has now decided to hang up his boots. He was quite emotional at the press conference, where he announced his retirement. Iqbal may not participate in other T20 leagues as well going forward.

Speaking of T20 leagues, not many cricket fans would know that Tamim participated in the IPL back in 2012 and 2013. He was a member of the now-defunct Pune Warriors team, where he shared the dressing room with the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Despite being available for 14 matches in IPL 2012, Iqbal did not get a game for Pune. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo after the season, the left-handed batter said:

"It was very frustrating, because I went there with very good form. I thought I would play from the start, but the team is the most important factor. I thought every day was an opportunity for me, despite not playing."

Tamim Iqbal named 1 thing which he liked the most in IPL

During the same interview, Iqbal named the one thing which he loved about the Indian Premier League. The Bangladesh star said that although he played for a lower-ranked team at the international level, the Pune Warriors team management asked for his inputs during the meetings.

He said:

"The thing that I liked the most was that despite being from Bangladesh, I did speak during team meetings. These things are very important because our team [Bangladesh] needs a lot of leadership qualities."

In 2012, Iqbal felt that interacting with leaders like Sourav Ganguly and Michael Clarke could have helped Bangladesh cricket a lot. A few years later, he became Bangladesh's ODI captain and helped them record 21 wins. The IPL experience would have certainly been useful for Tamim Iqbal.